How GNC increased production through automation

ASMO Greenville North Carolina (GNC) had a problem: They needed to nearly double their production of wiper motors, and they needed to reduce costs.

“We had received many new orders for wiper motors from customers like General Motors and DaimlerChrysler,” explained Sam Tada, president, GNC, “and we needed to increase our productivity from 1.8 million parts per year to 3 million.”

The solution? A fully automated wiper motor production line that boosted production capacity by adding to the existing semi-automated production line.

Designed and fabricated in Japan by ASMO Co., Ltd. the automated line has 33 robots which take on the tedious manual wiper motor assembly functions such as pigtail forming and screw tightening.

In the beginning

Although it was designed and built in Japan, GNC management recognized that the staff who worked on the new assembly line needed to be involved in the development process.

“It was important for our associates to be involved in deciding what would work best for productivity and quality at GNC,” said Shu Kimoto, manager of Production Engineering. “That included not just input into machine design improvements, but also associate education.We found that it was essential to have highly skilled operators in order to improve quality and productivity.”

So GNC sent four associates to Japan for training: Jeff Smith, assistant manager;Tracy Lanier, team leader;Tim Davis, Maintenance team leader, and Dennis Schmid, Maintenance team leader.

For three months, these associates worked side-by-side with their ASMO Co., Ltd. counterparts, becoming familiar with the new equipment.

“We really wanted to have a thorough understanding of this machine before it was transferred to the United States,” explained Schmid. “ All of our training was on the job, and that really helped us see how the machine worked and what to do if we spotted any
mechanical problems.”

They then took that knowledge back to GNC to train other maintenance associates on the new technology, especially the troubleshooting computer programs and how to program the assembly line’s 13 DENSO six-axis robots and 20 ASMO four-axis servo robots.

Moving in

Once the machine was delivered to GNC, a team of Production Engineering associates moved in to help set up the assembly line and develop the process control charts that serve as work instructions for the entire wiper motor assembly line team.

But there were a few hurdles to overcome.

The events of Sept.11, 2001, forced the cancellation of a trip to Japan to develop these charts.So Tad Sharpe, production engineer, Production Engineering, had to tackle this assignment as one of his first tasks as a GNC associate (Sharpe joined the GNC team in January and started to work on the process control charts the very next month). He quickly learned not to rely on Japanese/English language conversion software to help translate information.

“The software does not translate technical terms or name brands, so it just created more confusion for us,” said Sharpe. Instead they found other ways to communicate.

“My Japanese counterpart drew pictures and diagrams, and demonstrated what I needed to know,” explained Sharpe. “And that’s better than someone telling you—when you see it, you don’t forget it.”

The results

Now that the fully automated line has been installed for a few months, it’s easy to see the biggest benefit it’s brought to GNC—the 1/3 reduction in wiper motor assembly time.

What’s not quite as visible are the other changes it’s brought.

“There was a definite lift in morale around the plant when this machine was installed,” said Schmid. “Everyone was excited about the new technology and how it could help us reach our productivity goals.”